UK schools are being encouraged to sign-up to a revamped cybersecurity competition designed to improve diversity in the sector. The CyberFirst Girls Competition is the National Cyber Security Centre’s flagship event for schools. Since 2017 more than 43,000 girls aged 12-13 have taken part in a series of cybersecurity challenges. However, the 2022 edition will see some
Italy’s antitrust regulator has fined both Apple and Google €10 million each for what it calls are “aggressive” data practices and for not providing consumers with clear information on commercial uses of their personal data during the account creation phase. The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) said “Google and Apple did not
by Paul Ducklin Google’s Cybersecurity Action Team just published the first ever edition of a bulletin entitled Cloud Threat Intelligence. The primary warnings are hardly surprising (regular Naked Security visitors will have read about them here for years), and boil down to two main facts. Firstly, crooks show up fast: occasionally, it takes them days
“AI will revolutionize every aspect of connectivity,” was the bold message delivered during a recent webinar by the IDC titled ‘AI with everything – the future of Artificial Intelligence in Networking.‘ The synopsis of the webinar argued that artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how networks are built and operated in the most profound of ways. Additionally, IT
The time to repurpose vulnerabilities into working exploits will be measured in hours and there’s nothing you can do about it… except patch By Fred House 2021 is already being touted as one of the worst years on record with respect to the volume of zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in the wild. Some cite this as
‘Tis the season to avoid getting played by scammers hijacking Twitter accounts and promoting fake offers for PlayStation 5 consoles and other red-hot products As the holiday season beckons, so begins the frantic shopping season to find and acquire the much-wanted gift. This year, depending on what you’re looking to buy, could present some very
An advanced persistent threat (APT) has been linked to cyberattacks on two biomanufacturing companies that occurred this year with the help of a custom malware loader called “Tardigrade.” That’s according to an advisory published by Bioeconomy Information Sharing and Analysis Center (BIO-ISAC) this week, which noted that the malware is actively spreading across the sector
by Paul Ducklin The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued numerous warnings over the years about fraudsters attempting to adopt the identity of SEC officials, including by phone call spoofing. Call spoofing is where a scammer calls you up on your landline or mobile phone, claims to be from organisation X, and then
Service providers have suspended over 20 websites in Germany and the UK for disseminating online terrorist propaganda, Europol has revealed. In the last week of October, a referral action targeted 50 sites that police flagged for promoting violent jihadist ideology in support of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda. Police requested
Threat Summary On November 17, 2021, The US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) pushed an Alert entitled “Iranian Government-Sponsored APT Cyber Actors Exploiting Microsoft Exchange and Fortinet Vulnerabilities in Furtherance of Malicious Activities” which you need to pay attention to if you use Microsoft Exchange or Fortinet appliances. It highlights one Microsoft Exchange CVE
With the holiday shopping bonanza right around the corner, here’s how to make sure your online spending spree is hacker-free Black Friday is almost upon us and Cyber Monday is just around the corner, which means that most of us will be on the hunt for the perfect bargain. Which, to be honest, we will
Every Product Manager and Software Developer should know that pushing feature updates to production via traditional channels is as archaic as painting on cave walls. The smart are always quick to adapt to new, innovative technologies, and this mindset is exactly what makes normal companies great. The landscape is changing fast, especially in IT. Change
by Paul Ducklin [00’27”] Cybersecurity tips for the holiday season and beyond. [02’20”] Fun fact: The longest-lived Windows version ever. [03’40”] Exchange at risk from public exploit. [10’34”] GoDaddy loses passwords for 1.2m users. [18’25”] Tech history: What do you mean, “It uses a mouse?” [20’25”] Don’t make your cookies public! [27’51”] Oh! No! DDoS
A website, initially set up by graduates to offer IT support, has caught a criminal after a woman used it to try to arrange the murder of her ex-husband. RentaHitman.com is a darkly titled domain set up by a group of friends after they graduated from a California business school with degrees in IT. The site’s operator,
If you find that your email has been hacked, one of your immediate reactions is wondering what you should next. The answer: take a deep breath and jump into action. There are five steps can help you prevent or minimize any damage done by a compromised account. So why do hackers go after email accounts? Fact is, that email account of yours is
Threat actors have previously timed ransomware and other attacks to coincide with holidays and weekends In the run-up to Thanksgiving and the holiday season, the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are urging organizations, especially those operating in critical infrastructure, to remain vigilant against ransomware and other
Multiple security weaknesses have been disclosed in MediaTek system-on-chips (SoCs) that could have enabled a threat actor to elevate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the firmware of the audio processor, effectively allowing the attackers to carry out a “massive eavesdrop campaign” without the users’ knowledge. The discovery of the flaws is the result of
by Paul Ducklin The US Securities and Equities Commission (SEC) has just published a “Security Incident” submitted last week by Web services behemoth GoDaddy. GoDaddy says that on 17 November 2021 it realised that there were cybercriminals in its network, kicked them out, and then set about trying to figure out when the crooks got
More than four-fifths (81%) of UK retailers are putting their customers at risk of email fraud by not implementing the recommended level of domain-based message authentication, reporting and conformance (DMARC) protection. This is according to a new study by Proofpoint, which warned of a likely surge in fraudulent emails targeting online shoppers ahead of this year’s Black
Cloud Security Gateways (CSGs) are one of the hottest and most sought-after technologies in the market today, driven by the adoption of cloud services for business transformation and the acceptance of hybrid workforce policies. CSGs, also commonly known as Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs), are responsible for enforcing security policies to protect cloud-hosted corporate assets from advanced
Receiving a breach notification doesn’t mean you’re doomed – here’s what you should consider doing in the hours and days after learning that your personal data has been exposed Data breaches occur when an unauthorized third-party accesses an organization’s private information. Often, they involve theft of customers’ and/or employees’ personal data. There are strict rules
Marvel has been entertaining us for the last 20 years. We have seen gods, super-soldiers, magicians, and other irradiated heroes fight baddies at galactic scales. The eternal fight of good versus evil. A little bit like in cybersecurity, goods guys fighting cybercriminals. If we choose to go with this fun analogy, is there anything useful
by Paul Ducklin At the start of this month, CVE-2021-42321 was technically an Exchange zero-day flaw. This bug could be exploited for unauthorised remote code execution (RCE) on Microsoft Exchange 2016 and 2019, and was patched in the November 2021 Patch Tuesday updates. Microsoft officially listed the bug with the words “Exploitation Detected”, meaning that
The largest theft of Bitcoin from a single individual was allegedly perpetrated by a Canadian teenager. An unnamed youth was arrested last week on suspicion of stealing crypto-currency worth approximately $36.5m from an unnamed victim who is located in the United States. It is alleged that the defendant used a SIM swapping attack to gain access to
With the acceleration of cloud migration initiatives—partly arising the need to support a remote workforce during the pandemic and beyond—enterprises are finding that this transformation has introduced new operational complexities and security vulnerabilities. Among these are potential misconfigurations, poorly secured interfaces, Shadow IT (access to unauthorized applications), and an increasing number of connected devices and
Weaknesses in e-commerce portals are being exploited to deploy a Linux backdoor as well as a credit card skimmer that’s capable of stealing payment information from compromised websites. “The attacker started with automated e-commerce attack probes, testing for dozens of weaknesses in common online store platforms,” researchers from Sansec Threat Research said in an analysis.
by Paul Ducklin As we’ve explained before, the opposite (or perhaps we mean the inverse) of Black Friday wouldn’t be White Friday, it would be Red Friday. The word “black” in the context of the big retail surge that typically follows US Thanksgiving, which is always on a Thursday, refers to ink, from the time
The United States has charged two Iranian computer hackers in connection with a cyber-campaign intended to influence the outcome of America’s 2020 presidential election. An indictment unsealed in New York on Thursday alleges that 24-year-old Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and 27-year-old Sajjad Kashian conspired with others to intimidate and influence American voters, undermine voter confidence, and
In this career-journey series, Marketing Director Trevor shares why patient listening is the most helpful skill he’s acquired, the top career advice he’s received, and how his career at McAfee has taken him across four countries and five roles in 11 years. Learn more about the steps they took to find success and their advice
A victim of identity theft tells us how criminals used his identity to commit fraud and what it took to put his life back in order When a former neighbor contacted Martin Kaul (not his real name) in August 2020 to tell him that he’d received a letter at his old address, Martin thought nothing